Stephen Colbert Extends His Ruptured Appendix Hiatus

By Andrew Sanford | TV | December 5, 2023 |

By Andrew Sanford | TV | December 5, 2023 |

Appendicitis is a pain unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’ve had it twice! I dealt with my first incident in September 2022. I decided to take antibiotics instead of having surgery. That said, I would have chosen surgery had I not been kept waiting for 15 hours, making it impossible to arrange childcare on short notice. In July 2023, my appendicitis came back. Since I was once again kept waiting for an insane amount of time, I opted for antibiotics and scheduled surgery for this past September.

The surgery went well. I was told afterward that I came out of my anesthesia … fighting (I have the IV scar to prove it), but the operation itself was successful. The recovery was fairly easy. They prescribed a month’s supply of oxycodone, which my wife was unable to pick up for me. I decided instead to smoke a lot of weed and eat a lot of edibles. It was a great week and a half. It could have been much worse.

I was told that I was kept waiting as long as I was for several reasons. The biggest was that my condition was not a “priority emergency.” In short, I would be fine as long as my appendix didn’t burst and/or wasn’t ruptured. The pain from a ruptured appendix is demonstrably worse than one merely afflicted by appendicitis. A burst or ruptured appendix can be fatal, and that’s what Stephen Colbert has been dealing with!

Colbert was supposed to return post-Thanksgiving full of stuffing and new topical monologue jokes. Instead, the host had to cancel due to his ruptured appendix (which was thankfully removed). Now, he has postponed the show another week. Colbert explained on Threads, “I’m listening to my doctors and continuing to rest and heal. Thank you for all your well wishes, and I’ll see you soon.”

Thank goodness that Colbert is taking time to recover. I doubt he’ll be using THC to ride it out like I did, but I am going to let that thought live in my head for a while. Appendicitis is sudden and humbling. Like all sudden health scares, it puts things into perspective. When I got out of that hospital, I didn’t want to work, I wanted to hug my kids and my wife. I’m sure Colbert is doing the same.